Computers and globalisation could spell the demise of the three letters that distinguish the Danish alphabet

Tacked onto the end of the Danish alphabet, the special Danish letters 'æ', 'ø' and 'å' are threatened in a globalised world where the English language's dominance grows daily and where linguistic idiosyncrasies slow the internet's lightning fast communication, reports 24timer newspaper.

The telltale signs of standardisation have already appeared, concerned linguists point out. Denmark's largest corporation has erased the line in its 'ø' split apart the 'æ' in its name and now calls itself 'A.P. Moller-Maersk', for example. And any scholar named 'Søren' knows it's easiest to just use an 'o' when attending conferences abroad.

During the past 2,500 years, the Parthenon—the apotheosis of ancient Greek architecture—has been rocked by earthquakes, set on fire, shattered by exploding gunpowder, looted for its stunning sculptures and defaced by misguided preservation efforts. Amazingly, the ancient Athenians built the Parthenon in just eight or nine years. Repairing it is taking a bit longer.

The article is called "Study of starling formations points way for swarming robots" and even mentions robots in the first sentence, but the article really has nothing to do with robots...

Scientists have uncovered a simple rule that explains how thousands of starlings flock in formation and hope to use the discovery in the future to coordinate swarms of robots.

The reasons why the starlings are able to fly with Red Arrow precision in vast numbers, tumbling and banking in nervous unison and without colliding, has tantalised scientists.

Now it turns out that the secret is for each bird to track seven others, says the first detailed direct observations to have been reported by STARFLAG - Starlings in Flight - a European project involving biologists, physicists, and economists.

A number of iPod owners have discovered that their recently purchased iPods won't work with Apple's new iTunes video rentals, even though the iPods have video playback capabilities.

As of Tuesday, the issue had been raised multiple times in Apple's support forums. So far the company's only response has been to confirm that movie rentals work only with the iPhone, iPod touch, iPod classic and the third-generation iPod nano. Earlier iPods, including fifth-generation iPods sold before the September 2007 release of the sixth-generation iPod classic, are incompatible with rented videos.

The Lion man (in German: Löwenmensch) is a lion-headed ivory sculpture which is one of the oldest known sculptures in the world (the oldest animorphic sculpture). The figurine was determined to be about 32,000 years old using the C14 method on carbon bearing material from the same layer.

Its pieces were found in 1939 in a cave named Stadel im Hohlenstein in the Lonetal (Lone valley) Swabian Alb, Germany. Due to the beginning of the Second World War, it was forgotten and only rediscovered 30 years later. The first reconstruction revealed a humanoid figurine without head. In 1997/98 further pieces of the puzzle were discovered and the head was reassembled and restored.

via utexas.edu

The sculpture is 29.6 cm (11.7 inches) in height, 5.6 cm wide and 5,9 cm thick. It was carved out of mammoth ivory using a flint stone knife. There are seven parallel, horizontal carved gouges on the left arm. It was originally classified as a male, later as a female, but both interpretations lack scientific evidence. At last it is often called lion headed figurine, or - probably wrong but easy to remember - lion man.

Interpretation is very difficult. There are certain similarities to French cave wall paintings, which also show hybrid creatures. These, however, are several thousand years younger. Meanwhile a similar, but smaller, lion-headed sculpture has been found in another cave in the same region, along with other animal figures. This leads to the possibility, that the lion-man played an important role in the mythology of humans of the early Paleolithic.

From "The Mind in the Cave" David Lewis Williams 2002

...the statuettes were associated with an early form of shamanism: 'entering an altered state of consciousness is often considered a dangerous activity' and 'shamans have to be strong and powerful to...perform the work they do'...transformation into an animal is an integral part of shamanism. In providing social and conceptual contexts for the statuettes...the comparatively segregated locations in which the objects were found and suggest that Aurignacian shamans may have performed their tasks in relative seclusion, though the statuettes' use as pendants also suggests that they had a public significance.

“You’re talking about being against basic civil rights [in regards to gay marriage].”

He or she then proceeds to justify the conservative view on the topic, which contains this gem:

I do not mean to make light of the feelings and desires of homosexuals who find themselves in the unfortunate situation of being unable to marry. But twisting the argument into a civil rights case in order to acquire a non-existent right for themselves is not something I’m prepared to participate in. It seems likely supporters of gay marriage will respond they are not talking about a right to marry but about discrimination. In which case I must respond in order to be discriminated against, there must be something you are able to do which you are being prevented from doing because you are gay. Thus there is no discrimination here since homosexuals are unable to marry.

The tortured logic of this paragraph is painful enough, but if brave, try reading the whole thing here. There are many more painful examples where that came from.

Nutshell arguement: Cultures [and the author of said piece, nose held firmly in air] have traditionally been able to discriminate against homosexuals, so how dare they now ask for that to stop. Really, some people are so uppity...

Phil from the UK anti-ID-register group NO2ID sends in this nugget -- note the call to action there. We've got a sensitive government document revealing the British government's plan to trick us into a database state and we need as many copies as possible, as quickly as possible!

UK campaigners NO2ID this morning enlisted the help of bloggers across the world to spread a leaked government document describing how the British government intends to go about "coercing" its citizens onto a National Identity Register. The 'ID card' is revealed as little more than a cover to create a official dossier and trackable ID for every UK resident - creating what NO2ID calls 'the database state'.

NO2ID's national coordinator, Phil Booth, exhorted bloggers, freedom lovers and anyone who gives a damn about personal privacy to mirror the annotated document on their site.

"The charade is over. While ministers try to bamboozle the British public with fairytales about fingerprints, officials are plotting how to dupe and bully the population into surrendering control of their own identities."

"Biometric ID cards are a sham; a magician's flourish to cover the biggest identity fraud there has ever been."

While sitting at your desk, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles. Now, while doing this draw the number "6" in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction and there's nothing you can do about it.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

It was a routine e-mail from the boss sent to congratulate a junior prosecutor in Houston, Tex., who had won manslaughter convictions against an intoxicated driver.

"He convicted Mr. Sosa of a double intoxication manslaughter, got a weak jury to give him 12 years in each, and then convinced Judge Wallace to stack the sentences," Harris County assistant district attorney Mike Trent wrote in an office-wide memo. Then came the odd part: "He overcame a subversively good defence by Matt Hennessey that had some Canadians on the jury feeling sorry for the defendant and forced them to do the right thing."

The e-mail was sent in 2003 but came to light only this month as part of an unrelated controversy with his office, forcing Mr. Trent to defend himself against accusations of bigotry -- not because he offended the people of Canada, but because "Canadian" has apparently become a code word for blacks among American racists.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Scientists have built the first synthetic genome by stringing together 147 pages of letters representing the building blocks of DNA.

The researchers used yeast to stitch together four long strands of DNA into the genome of a bacterium called Mycoplasma genitalium. They said it's more than an order of magnitude longer than any previous synthetic DNA creation. Leading synthetic biologists said with the new work, published Thursday in the journal Science, the first synthetic life could be just months away -- if it hasn't been created already.

Two “extremely important” gold coins that shed light on a little-known rebel Roman emperor from the 3rd century AD have been unearthed by a farmer in the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire area. They relate to the Roman commander Carausius, who declared himself Emperor of Britain around 286 or 287 after the Emperor in Rome ordered his execution. He was overthrown in a coup d’état by his finance minister, Allectus, in 293.

The coins were handed in to the Portable Antiquities Scheme and moved to the British Museum. The scheme is facing a freeze in funding, despite recording more than 314,000 discoveries that have revealed many new archaeological sites. The farmer’s identity is not being revealed because archaeologists are to explore the site.

Opening his radio show with funeral music yesterday, Fox News host John Gibson callously mocked the death of actor Heath Ledger, calling him a “weirdo” with a “serious drug problem.”

Playing an audio clip of the iconic quote, “I wish I knew how to quit you” from Ledger’s gay romance movie Brokeback Mountain, Gibson disdainfully quipped, “Well, he found out how to quit you.” Laughing, Gibson then played another clip from Brokeback Mountain in which Ledger said, “We’re dead,” followed by his own, mocking “We’re dead” before playing the clip again.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Within minutes of posting a story on CNN's homepage called "Gender or race: Black women voters face tough choices in South Carolina," readers reacted quickly and angrily.

Many took umbrage at the story's suggestion that black women voters face "a unique, and most unexpected dilemma" about voting their race or their gender.

CNN received dozens of e-mails shortly after posting the story, which focuses largely on conversations about Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama that a CNN reporter observed at a hair salon in South Carolina whose customers are predominantly African-American.

The story states: "For these women, a unique, and most unexpected dilemma, presents itself: Should they vote their race, or should they vote their gender?" Read the story

An e-mailer named Tiffany responded sarcastically: "Duh, I'm a black woman and here I am at the voting booth. Duh, since I'm illiterate I'll pull down the lever for someone. Hm... Well, he black so I may vote for him... oh wait she a woman I may vote for her... What Ise gon' do? Oh lordy!"

Ringo Starr is known for being the amiable Beatle, but the rock star showed his tough side Tuesday when he walked off the set of "Live With Regis and Kelly" rather than cut short one of his songs.

Starr, who is promoting his new album, "Liverpool 8," planned to perform the title song with fellow rocker Dave Stewart. However, due to miscommunication between his publicist, Elizabeth Freund, and the musical director, Starr didn't realize the performance had to be 2 1/2 minutes or less, Freund told The Associated Press.

When told Tuesday morning that the performance had to be shortened, Freund said Starr tried to cut about a minute of the song's 4 minute, 15 second length, down to 3 minutes and 30 seconds. However, according to Freund, producer Michael Gellman said it had to be less than 3 minutes.

"We offered to cut back our chat time and asked them to fade or go to commercial. They were not willing to do that and Ringo was not willing to cut it further, so without a compromise we were not able to stay," Freund said in a statement to The Associated Press. "Ringo left saying, 'God bless and goodbye. We still love Regis.' "

It's not only Toronto where developers are blowing away neighbourhoods to build questionable projects, my good friends (Chris Gobeil and Judith Bauer) in Montreal are experiencing it first hand. First they had one place:

Bauer: We had a 4,500-square-foot loft on Dowd St., just around the corner from St. Patrick's Basilica. It was huge, palatial.

Gobeil: But the place was bought by developers. They gave us the boot pretty quick...

So they bought an old house in Griffintown, Montreal...

We take a tour of the living quarters, which are spread across three upstairs apartments. The rooms are delightfully stocked with kitsch and collectibles, vivid paintings and charming antiques. The third-floor bedroom features slanting ceilings, exposed cedar beams and skylights that can be opened during the hot days of summer. We stop to talk in the main-floor conference room of Gobeil's accounting firm.

but...

Now what about this planned redevelopment of Griffintown? Did that come as a surprise?

Bauer: We always knew it would be developed. But we imagined that they would develop around us, and 20 years from now we'd be here with our nice walled garden. The idea that someone would come in and do such a big area all at once never occurred to us.

It looks like they plan to build a lot of clone high-rises, just like they did up the street.

Gobeil: Terraces Windsor. It's going to look a lot like that.

Very generic, no regard whatsoever for the history of the area. Whole streets may be erased by the looks of their plans.

Gobeil: It's too bad. There is history down here. So when we saw the developers recently, a guy with the company doing the consultations said to me, "Oh, we didn't think anybody lived on Ottawa Street!" I said, "Well, I live there. My neighbour lives there."

But they say it will be private development, and private companies can't expropriate, so what's going on?

Gobeil: Who knows? My notary tells me that's terra incognita. So until we get more details and the project gets approval, I don't think we're going to know.

On a quiet Sunday morning in June, as worshippers settled into the pews at Allen Baptist Church in southwestern Michigan, Pastor Jason Burrick grabbed his cellphone and dialed 911. When a dispatcher answered, the preacher said a former congregant was in the sanctuary. "And we need to, um, have her out A.S.A.P."

Half an hour later, 71-year-old Karolyn Caskey, a church member for nearly 50 years who had taught Sunday school and regularly donated 10% of her pension, was led out by a state trooper and a county sheriff's officer. One held her purse and Bible. The other put her in handcuffs.

The charge was trespassing, but Mrs. Caskey's real offense, in her pastor's view, was spiritual. Several months earlier, when she had questioned his authority, he'd charged her with spreading "a spirit of cancer and discord" and expelled her from the congregation. "I've been shunned," she says.

Her story reflects a growing movement among some conservative Protestant pastors to bring back church discipline, an ancient practice in which suspected sinners are privately confronted and then publicly castigated and excommunicated if they refuse to repent. While many Christians find such practices outdated, pastors in large and small churches across the country are expelling members for offenses ranging from adultery and theft to gossiping, skipping service and criticizing church leaders.

so i just found this site, and my camera feeds are for camera 1, 3, and 4, and camera 2 is offline. additionally, those little green bars can adjust the feeds so that they're less fuzzy. there's a code just to the right of the green bars. for 100% on cam 1, i got the code 564; for cam 3, it's 955; and for cam 4, it's 289.

THE FBI has been accused of covering up a key case file detailing evidence against corrupt government officials and their dealings with a network stealing nuclear secrets.

The assertion follows allegations made in The Sunday Times two weeks ago by Sibel Edmonds, an FBI whistleblower, who worked on the agency’s investigation of the network.

Edmonds, a 37-year-old former Turkish language translator, listened into hundreds of sensitive intercepted conversations while based at the agency’s Washington field office.

She says the FBI was investigating a Turkish and Israeli-run network that paid high-ranking American officials to steal nuclear weapons secrets. These were then sold on the international black market to countries such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

On 19 January 2007 [2008?], news broke that German collections agency GEMA had claimed to have won a temporary injunction against both RapidShare.de and RapidShare.com. "The latter is said to have used copyright protected works of GEMA members in an unlawful fashion,". To date RapidShare has claimed not to have any knowledge of the content uploaded by the users and of not being in a position to control the content. Through its injunctions the District Court in Cologne had now however made it clear to the company that the fact that it was the users and not the operator of the services that uploaded the content onto the sites did not, from a legal point of view, lessen the operator’s liability for copyright infringements that occurred within the context of the services, the spokesman added. Currently rapidshare is not working.

Here comes another movie (from a tv show) that for mystifying reasons, has gay men everywhere are jumping for joy.

Sit down you culturally deprived fools.

Beside the sad fact that segments of the gay population adore anything that features airheaded rich woman, and I repeat rich. But my dear friends, this is an American show. What can they, what could they know about sex?

Canada has come under growing criticism following allegations that detainees were tortured in Afghanistan after its soldiers transferred suspects to Afghan security forces.

If this is true, some one needs to fry. Yup Harper, even you.

The listing drew a sharp response from the U.S., a key NATO ally and trading partner, which asked to removed from the manual.

"We find it to be offensive for us to be on the same list with countries like Iran and China. Quite frankly it's absurd," U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins to Canada said. "For us to be on a list like that is just ridiculous."

He said the U.S. does not authorize or condone torture. "We think it should be removed and we've made that request. We have voiced our opinion very forcefully."

I seem to have been the last man in my, demographic, to have not seen 300.

So, I finally did see it last night. Visually it is wonderful. You can see this in the clip above. I'm a fan of the battle scene in movies, and this film delivers new and fresh takes on this.

All the other stuff they say about it: homoerotic, sure if you want, I don't think it is the filmmakers aim here. Violent, oh yes but in a strangely cartoon, almost comic book style...gee wonder where they got that idea...

Republican propaganda, sure I guess that's there, but so is a message of freedom against slavery. Our world view is still coloured by these ancient events, though the man in the street may not know this. The so called ancient world is not so ancient.

3rd time since I've been here. Toronto has a major fucking problem on its hands. Michael Moore, you watching?

An innocent bystander working at a grocery store was shot to death in an apparent shootout on a busy Riverdale street last night.

Shoppers ducked for cover as bullets struck store windows and parked cars on Gerrard St. E., near Broadview Ave., around 6 p.m.

"It appears a totally innocent bystander, for the second time in a week, has been hit by gunfire on a busy downtown street, and has lost his life," said Toronto police chief Bill Blair, as he attended the scene late last night.

Kim Hult, an attorney representing McLean and Stevens, compared her clients' situation to that of a lost puppy — saying that if someone cares for the animal for a long time, the owner can't show up years later and demand the dog.

"That use, over a long period of time ... means the people — the neighbors using the land, caring for the land — have acquired legal rights," Hult told NPR.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

On February 14, 2006 the Western Standard drew the attention of the Muslim community by reprinting the controversial editorial cartoons depicting Muhammad, the founder of Islam.

Levant republished the Muhammed cartoons on his website in January 2008 on the same day he appeared before a hearing of the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission investigating a complaint by Syed Soharwardy of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada about Levant's earlier publication of the cartoon. Additionally, Sowharwardy has filed a complaint with Calgary police about Levant saying he fears for his safety because of "lies" he says Levant has been spreading about him claiming Levant is inciting hatred. Police say they are investigating Levant as a result of the complaint.[24]

Levant was called before the Human Rights Commission and asked to defend his right to publish.

The Chicago Spire is a supertall skyscraper under construction in Chicago, Illinois. The skyscraper will stand taller than Chicago's Sears Tower and New York's upcoming Freedom Tower, as well as Toronto's CN Tower, to become North America's tallest free-standing structure and the world's tallest all-residential building.

And they're not blowing away neighbourhoods to build it, it's on old factory land.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Yes, I've finally seen the 3rd Pirate movie. Why do I tolerate them? High Adventure!

I do challenge you to explain, on one viewing, just what the fuck is going on in the plot though...by the middle of the movie I've given up trying to figure out the 20 plot lines and 100s of characters.

Oh yeah, Chow Yun-Fat is in here somewhere, buried under a costume of unspeakable...The Craw! The CRAW!

Sorry...

What's to like? There are moments of true greatness..visually..where this film does things never done before, and also revisits traditional pirate themes in a new way.

There's also one or two pokes at Bush, if you look for them.

I'm glad Geoffrey Rush is back as Barbossa. He's not used as well as the first film, but there is a moment when he takes the wheel and everyone takes notice.

Some scenes go on and on (the pirate's meeting..omg...) and Yawn, old Keith as even older Papa Sparrow. Wasted opportunity (Jagger should have played Mama...)

In the "Ship being blasted to shit" category, this sequence wins hands down...

And for overkill, the 10, 000 appearances of Jack Sparrow..enough already.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

The United States Constitution never uses the word "God" or makes mention of any religion, drawing its sole authority from "We the People." However, Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee thinks it's time to put an end to that.

"I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution," Huckabee told a Michigan audience on Monday. "But I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that's what we need to do -- to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view."

German academics believe they have solved the centuries-old mystery behind the identity of the Mona Lisa in Leonardo da Vinci's famous portrait.

Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a wealthy Florentine merchant, Francesco del Giocondo, has long been seen as the most likely model for the 16th-century painting.

Art historians, however, have often wondered whether the smiling woman might actually have been da Vinci's lover, his mother or the artist himself.

Now experts at the Heidelberg University library say dated notes scribbled in the margins of a book by its owner in October, 1503, confirm once and for all that Lisa del Giocondo was indeed the model for one of the most famous portraits in the world.

"All doubts about the identity of the Mona Lisa have been eliminated by a discovery by Dr. Armin Schlechter," a manuscript expert, the library said in a statement on Monday.

REMAINS of what was one of the biggest Roman bridges to be built in Britain have been reassembled on the banks of the River Tyne.

The 50ft long and 10ft high reconstruction is opposite Corbridge Roman site in Northumberland and near the spot where the ornate stone bridge spanned the river.

Excavations rescued stonework from the bridge which was threatened by river erosion.

The bridge carried Dere Street, the main South-North road, over the Tyne to the important Roman fort and supply base at Corbridge – and was built accordingly.

The excavations revealed that the bridge, built around 160AD, had between six and 10 arches and was probably highly decorated with columns, elaborate parapets, altars and statues of gods and the emperor and his family.

“It would have been a magnificent entry point to the Hadrian’s Wall area,” said Paul Bidwell, senior manager at Tyne and Wear Museums’ Archaeology.

From that family of less than stellar intelligences comes this quote from Jeb Bush:

The truth is useless. You have to understand this right now. You can't deposit the truth in a bank. You can't buy groceries with the truth. You can't pay rent with the truth. The truth is a useless commodity that will hang around your neck like an albatross all the way to the homeless shelter. And if you think that the million or so people in this country that are really interested in the truth about their government can support people who would tell them the truth, you got another thing coming. Because the million or so people in this country that are truly interested in the truth don't have any money.

My dislike for that family grows daily. Their contempt for us is obvious.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

The Brass Rail is Toronto's largest strip club and the last night's shooting happened outside it.

I predict it will close in the not too distant future, as the future residents of the multi million dollar condos going up in the area may have a dim view of the Wild West Yonge Street becomes at night.

The nation's intelligence chief says waterboarding "would be torture" if used against him or if someone under interrogation actually was taking water into his lungs.

Ah good, someone is finally coming forward and...oh damn

But Mike McConnell, in a magazine interview, declined for legal reasons to say whether the technique categorically should be considered torture.

"If it ever is determined to be torture, there will be a huge penalty to be paid for anyone engaging in it," McConnell told The New Yorker, which published a 16,000-word article Sunday on the director of national intelligence.

The mind reels as to who they deem worthy of making this determination...See 'em dance more here.

I live just around the corner from this...second time something like this has happened (to my knowledge) since I've lived here. That is WAY too much.

A man walking past a Yonge St. strip club early yesterday became Toronto's second murder victim of 2008 after he was shot in the head by one of two men who had just been thrown out of the club.

Two men have been arrested and face charges of first-degree murder and attempted murder in connection with the incident, which occurred at 1:15 a.m. outside the Brass Rail Club on Yonge just south of Bloor St.

Police say two men were thrown out of the club, started to walk away, then turned back.

One took out a handgun and fired in the direction of a staff member of the club.

But the bullet struck a man who police say was walking past the club.

The victim, who was hit once in the head, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police have not yet released his name.

"The deceased was not the intended target," police said.

They caught the motherfuckers who did this, but this changes nothing. IMHO if you think you need own a gun, let alone use it, you have the IQ of a doorknob. Use it like this and you should exit this existence with the same speed you seem to think others deserve.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Another psychopathic anti gay is on the march again in (shock!) the U.S.A.

Attorneys for a Neuqua Valley High School student from Bolingbrook fighting the school's ruling that he cannot wear an anti-gay T-shirt are hoping the third time will be the charm.

Twice, Neuqua sophomore Alexander Nuxoll of Bolingbrook has filed for an injunction that would suspend "the school's policy that allows speech in favor of homosexual conduct, but bans speech critical of homosexual conduct," said his attorney, the Alliance Defense Fund's Jonathan Scruggs.

And twice now courts have denied that request.

Now, Nuxoll and his legal counsel are set to seek an appeal of these decisions.

"We hope to have an expedited review and have a decision from the Seventh Circuit vindicating our client's rights before the (April 25) Day of Silence so that he can speak and express his viewpoint then," Scruggs said.

Friday, January 11, 2008

It’s not often we receive letters with the subject heading "Apology To Gay Community." More often than not we just get complaints about typos, lots of spam or creepy missives from cranks who just generally hate the gays. And these days, it seems the only time people apologize is just before they head off to rehab, jail or are otherwise forced into contrition by Oprah or Jay Leno. So you can imagine our surprise when we saw that subject heading in our inbox on Dec. 22 and opened an email signed by one Stephen Dunne, the man more commonly known as "the bar exam flunker."

Domain registrar Network Solutions has come under fire this week for what some believe is "domain name frontrunning." The practice resulted in Network Solutions registering a previously-unregistered domain to itself immediately after someone searched for it, then holding the domain for four days before it could be purchased by someone else or at another registrar. But the company claims that it's merely trying to protect customers from others doing exactly that. Until there is more regulation over frontrunning from ICANN, this is the best it can come up with.

Good post from Shakesville on how a longer memory helps protect you from the stupidity of others who have zero historical knowledge...

The Creeping Creepiness of Racism

Toady, I entered a conversation about whether a white news commentator might not have known that suggesting that other golfers "lynch him (Tiger Woods) in a back alley" was a racist comment worthy of public sanction.

Among the various arguments I read was this one: Given the commentator's age, she might not really understand the charged context of the word "lynch" in reference to a person-of-color.

And somehow, vaguely, in the back of my mind, I remembered a time when I could not imagine that I would be hearing this argument from progressives.

Later in the day, I read that many younger readers at the same blog did not know the racist connotations of the phrase "Shuck and Jive", "cakewalk", or "porch monkey".

Thursday, January 10, 2008

The New York Times reported today that the doubters of the legitimacy of the U.S. reports now include the Pentagon itself: "Unnamed Pentagon officials said on Wednesday that the threatening voice heard in the audio clip, which was released on Monday night with a disclaimer that it was recorded separately from the video images and merged with them later, is not directly traceable to the Iranian military. That undercuts one of the most menacing elements from the Pentagon’s assertion that Iranian forces threatened the Navy ships: The voice on the radio saying, 'I am coming to you. … You will explode after … minutes.'"

AT&T executive James Cicconi, senior vice president of external & legal affairs must not read the news before opening their mouths. The New York Times Bits Blog is reporting this morning that representatives at CES have openly stated today “that they may start filtering Internet content.”

Brilliant move, considering that news just broke yesterday that Comcast could receive FCC fines as high as $1.77 trillion. Obviously, filtering traffic to prevent your users from utilizing certain protocols or services is a form of non-Network Neutral behavior, and AT&T purports to be plodding down the path towards making that a reality for their millions of broadband users.

AT&T doesn’t seem interested in only ending the use of BitTorrent or other P2P clients. They’re also actively investigating the usage of digital fingerprinting to filter out other website’s usage of what the system deems as copyrighted material. They’re currently in close talks with NBC-Universal over what the best software package would be to use...

He added, in later comment, that “..whatever we do has to pass muster with consumers and with policy standards. There is going to be a spotlight on it.”

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

If this story is legit, then Los Angeles Associated Press assistant bureau chief Frank Baker is a moron, and thinks we all are too.

In an internal email issued this afternoon, Los Angeles Associated Press assistant bureau chief Frank Baker notified his staff of a major policy change."Now and for the foreseeable future," he wrote, "virtually everything involving Britney is a big deal."

"Now and for the foreseeable future, virtually everything involving Britney is a big deal. That doesn't mean every rumor makes it on the wire. But it does mean that we want to pay attention to what others are reporting and seek to confirm those stories the WE feel warrent the wire. And when we determine that we'll write something, we must expedite it."

Toronto is hated in the rest of Canada, and as I live here I can tell you they have no clue as to why they are hated..

Clue 1. Listen to the tone of this article from the National (hahahaha) Post...

Economic supremacy was surrendered to Toronto long ago. Hockey fans have lately grown accustomed to seeing the Canadiens miss the NHL playoffs as often as the hated Maple Leafs. At least, Montrealers consoled themselves, we can still eat better here.

But now even the assumed superiority of Montreal restaurants is under attack as the city's annual mid-winter festival of gourmet dining has declared Toronto its featured city.

Such celebrated chefs as Susur Lee, Jamie Kennedy and Keith Froggett will leave their Toronto restaurants for a few days next month to share secrets with their Montreal counterparts and chip away at the biases of diners who think Toronto closes at midnight.

"We wanted to shatter the prejudices of Quebecers," said Germaine Salois, director of the Montreal High Lights Festival's gourmet series. "We know Toronto is no longer what it used to be. There are fine restaurants. It is a great metropolis. .."

Yup, that's all you hear here.."we're world class...we're a great metropolis..."

A conservative Christian pastor plans to launch a high-profile campaign Tuesday urging religious followers to load up on Microsoft Corp. stock, in an attempt to force the company to "stop financing ungodly ventures."

The Rev. Ken Hutcherson, who leads Antioch Bible Church in Microsoft's hometown of Redmond, says that he will create a global and powerful group to promote traditional family values, including marriage exclusively between a man and a woman.

Hutcherson, joined by some of the country's most influential Christian leaders, has created a new organization, AGN Financial Network, to finance the effort. The worldwide venture asks people to buy three shares of company stock and donate one to AGN. Its Web site tells visitors, "You have the power to change the world," and contains tips on how to open a brokerage account. Among the listed supporters are Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention and religious pundit Gary Bauer.

"We're not trying to hurt Microsoft or their shareholders, nor are we calling for a boycott of their products," volunteer spokesman Dennis Sullivan said. "We are trying to get Christians to buy their shares."

It's unclear what effect, if any, the initiative could have on the stock price. It would be difficult to influence company direction -- just to gain a 1 percent stake in Microsoft, about 31 million people would each have to spend $104 to buy three shares. Microsoft has about 9.36 billion outstanding shares, and its largest holder is Chairman Bill Gates, with 858 million shares, or 9 percent of the total. Capital Research and Management Co. follows with nearly 557 million shares, or 6 percent.

And it's not just hatred driving this man...

When asked whether the new initiative is a ploy to make money for his church, Hutcherson said, "Absolutely."

"We're going to need the finances to go to the next companies," he said. "Anything you do successfully needs money."

Is there any other type of gay Republican? They usually get all fucked up and start buying guns (looking at you GayOrbit...)

They exist here in Canada too, the Conservative Gay. Nasty type, queens getting all huffy about immigrants and the homeless..."look at my condo brochure!..."

Andrew Sullivan is not anything if not confused. Obama Obama Obama!...and then this:

Republicans are, indeed, breathing more easily this morning:

Everyone, Republicans and Democrats alike, know why the GOP wants to face Hillary in November. It's not because they like the Clintons, but because the Clintons unite the Republican base like no other Democrat -- and perhaps like no other Republican. Hillary will star in thousands of mailers, television ads, and websites, all cajoling Republicans to open their wallets, organize, and get to the voting booth.

And -- it will work. Even in a year where the fractures among the Republican coalition have been painfully evident, everyone will unite to keep the Clintons out of the White House. While Obama may have won some moderate Republicans to his side just based on his personal appeal, none will endorse the Restoration. Fredheads, Log Cabins, evangelicals, small-L libertarians, and hawks will all find a truce to battle Hillary to the last vote.

If it's McCain versus Clinton, I start looking to support the Republican again. I'm not the only one.

Yee gads, does he not see his country, if not the world, should not elect a Republican again for this term. These are some of the dumbest people on Earth...oh well (no, not oh well. I wish we had a say in whatever dope they put in office. After all, we *all* have to put up with the shit the U.S. throws at the world).

As per Mr. Sullivan, it's a wonder the man stays gay. He's about as usefull as a black in the KKK or a Jew in Al Queda.

A rare hoard of Roman coins has been found in Bath at the site of a new city centre hotel.

Around 150 coins have so far been unearthed in the run-up to work on the new Gainsborough Hotel and Thermal Spa.

But the Lower Borough Walls site is expected to yield more than 1,000 coins once the whole haul has been examined.

The find has been greeted with excitement by archaeologists because some of the coins are thought to date from the middle of the third century, one of the most poorly represented periods for coins in Britain.

Remember October's news of Comcast throttling Bit Torrent traffic? The debacle not only created a firestorm of bad press for the nation's largest cable provider but also re-ignited the nationwide debate about Net Neutrality. We had numerous signs that Comcast was inhibiting our use of this legal and legitimate file transfer protocol, but to have the AP catch them red handed was icing on the cake.

To add to our pleasure, we learned today that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has finally taken notice of Comcast's indiscretion as well. According to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, a group of consumer advocates and legal scholars have asked the commission to look into Comcast discriminating against specific types of data (read: Bit Torrent). The groups have also requested the FCC to fine Comcast $195,000 per affected subscribers. In case you were wondering, at last report, Comcast has 9.1 million subscribers.

The high definition video strategies of Toshiba and Microsoft have been thrown into disarray on the eve of the consumer electronics industry’s biggest trade event of the year, following a landmark movie deal secured by rival Sony.

A decision late last week by Warner Bros to release high-definition DVDs only in Sony’s Blu-ray format would turn out to be the tipping point in the “format war” that has divided the consumer electronics industry, according to analysts.

TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson has lost money after publishing his bank details in his newspaper column.

The Top Gear host revealed his account numbers after rubbishing the furore over the loss of 25 million people's personal details on two computer discs.

He wanted to prove the story was a fuss about nothing.

But Clarkson admitted he was "wrong" after he discovered a reader had used the details to create a £500 direct debit to the charity Diabetes UK.

Clarkson published details of his Barclays account in the Sun newspaper, including his account number and sort code. He even told people how to find out his address.

"All you'll be able to do with them is put money into my account. Not take it out. Honestly, I've never known such a palaver about nothing," he told readers.But he was proved wrong, as the 47-year-old wrote in his Sunday Times column.

"I opened my bank statement this morning to find out that someone has set up a direct debit which automatically takes £500 from my account," he said.

"The bank cannot find out who did this because of the Data Protection Act and they cannot stop it from happening again.

The U.S. military reported Monday on a "significant" confrontation involving five Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats that "harrassed and provoked" three U.S. naval ships in international waters over the weekend.

U.S. military officials said the incident occurred Saturday night in the [Gulf of Tonkin] Strait of Hormuz, a narrow shipping channel leading in and out of the Persian Gulf.

The five Iranian ships made "threatening" moves -- in one case coming within 200 yards of a U.S. ship, the U.S. officials said.

In one radio transmission, the Iranians told the U.S. Navy: "I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes," the U.S. military officials told CNN.

When the U.S. ships heard that radio transmission, they manned their gun positions and officers were "in the process" of giving the order to fire when the Iranians abruptly turned away, the U.S. officials said.

Sunday, January 06, 2008

The Journal de Montréal reported yesterday that two igloos have appeared on Mount Royal, one near Park Avenue and the other further west, near Beaver Lake. They’re both about six feet high, made from large blocks of snow, cut and assembled quite solidly, and big enough to hold two or three people. Nobody seems to know who built them, though, or for that matter, why.

The theory nows seems to be that a homeless man built them...

Les Amis de la montagne['s] spokesperson said, “This construction was not authorized. A dwelling of this type is illegal.”

Foster + Partners have released designs for the biggest building ever built: Crystal Island in Moscow will be 450m high, cover an area of almost half a million square metres and contain a total floor area of 2.5 million square metres.

The Food and Drug Administration is expected to declare as early as next week that meat and milk from cloned animals and their offspring are safe to consume, the Wall Street Journal reported without naming its source.

The FDA had asked producers of cloned livestock not to sell food products from such animals pending its ruling on their safety. It is not clear whether the FDA will lift this voluntary hold, the report said.

While many consumer groups still oppose it, the FDA declaration that cloned animal products are safe would be a milestone for a small cadre of biotech companies that want to make a business out of producing copies of prize dairy cows and other farm animals.

Cause I want nothing what so ever to do with it. The FDA may say it's "safe", but the gross out factor is too much for me.

There are too many moments these days when we cannot recognize our country. Sunday was one of them, as we read the account in The Times of how men in some of the most trusted posts in the nation plotted to cover up the torture of prisoners by Central Intelligence Agency interrogators by destroying videotapes of their sickening behavior. It was impossible to see the founding principles of the greatest democracy in the contempt these men and their bosses showed for the Constitution, the rule of law and human decency.

It was not the first time in recent years we’ve felt this horror, this sorrowful sense of estrangement, not nearly. This sort of lawless behavior has become standard practice since Sept. 11, 2001.

The country and much of the world was rightly and profoundly frightened by the single-minded hatred and ingenuity displayed by this new enemy. But there is no excuse for how President Bush and his advisers panicked — how they forgot that it is their responsibility to protect American lives and American ideals, that there really is no safety for Americans or their country when those ideals are sacrificed.

Out of panic and ideology, President Bush squandered America’s position of moral and political leadership, swept aside international institutions and treaties, sullied America’s global image, and trampled on the constitutional pillars that have supported our democracy through the most terrifying and challenging times. These policies have fed the world’s anger and alienation and have not made any of us safer.

In the years since 9/11, we have seen American soldiers abuse, sexually humiliate, torment and murder prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq. A few have been punished, but their leaders have never been called to account. We have seen mercenaries gun down Iraqi civilians with no fear of prosecution. We have seen the president, sworn to defend the Constitution, turn his powers on his own citizens, authorizing the intelligence agencies to spy on Americans, wiretapping phones and intercepting international e-mail messages without a warrant.

We have read accounts of how the government’s top lawyers huddled in secret after the attacks in New York and Washington and plotted ways to circumvent the Geneva Conventions — and both American and international law — to hold anyone the president chose indefinitely without charges or judicial review.

Those same lawyers then twisted other laws beyond recognition to allow Mr. Bush to turn intelligence agents into torturers, to force doctors to abdicate their professional oaths and responsibilities to prepare prisoners for abuse, and then to monitor the torment to make sure it didn’t go just a bit too far and actually kill them.

The White House used the fear of terrorism and the sense of national unity to ram laws through Congress that gave law-enforcement agencies far more power than they truly needed to respond to the threat — and at the same time fulfilled the imperial fantasies of Vice President Dick Cheney and others determined to use the tragedy of 9/11 to arrogate as much power as they could.

Hundreds of men, swept up on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, were thrown into a prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, so that the White House could claim they were beyond the reach of American laws. Prisoners are held there with no hope of real justice, only the chance to face a kangaroo court where evidence and the names of their accusers are kept secret, and where they are not permitted to talk about the abuse they have suffered at the hands of American jailers.

In other foreign lands, the C.I.A. set up secret jails where “high-value detainees” were subjected to ever more barbaric acts, including simulated drowning. These crimes were videotaped, so that “experts” could watch them, and then the videotapes were destroyed, after consultation with the White House, in the hope that Americans would never know.

The C.I.A. contracted out its inhumanity to nations with no respect for life or law, sending prisoners — some of them innocents kidnapped on street corners and in airports — to be tortured into making false confessions, or until it was clear they had nothing to say and so were let go without any apology or hope of redress.

These are not the only shocking abuses of President Bush’s two terms in office, made in the name of fighting terrorism. There is much more — so much that the next president will have a full agenda simply discovering all the wrongs that have been done and then righting them.

We can only hope that this time, unlike 2004, American voters will have the wisdom to grant the awesome powers of the presidency to someone who has the integrity, principle and decency to use them honorably. Then when we look in the mirror as a nation, we will see, once again, the reflection of the United States of America.